A new distributed topology discovery technology for IPv6 networks

Most existed distributed topology discovery applications deploy multiple probing hosts throughout the network. Paths are then probed from the individual points and the data later is unified into a single topology graph. This approach relies on the ability to deploy probing hosts throughout the network, which in many cases is not possible. This paper presents MTAS (multi tunnel access system), a system which deploys probing hosts in a single IPv4 subnet. Each probing host creates an IPv6 over IPv4 tunnel to reach an ISATAP (intra-site automatic tunnel addressing protocol) or 6to4 relay router which distributed in the world and provides service for public. In MTAS, ISATAP and 6 to 4 relay routers just work like probing springboards distributed in different location for IPv6 network topology discovery, so MTAS is a handy distributed application. To avoid retracing the same trace route paths, MTAS system deploys a middle database to store the collected path. The authors also present some preliminary test results from probing CERNET2, the largest native IPv6 network in China. And the test results illustrate the effectiveness of MTAS.